Broadband Access in the Information Economy

David Strom, david@strom.com

(516) 944-3407

VINA Briefing

© 2000 David Strom Inc. p. 2

Summary

• Broadband issues

• My own experiences at home and work

• Considering cable or xDSL choices

© 2000 David Strom Inc. p. 3

Broadband Issues

• Not easy to get service, still!

• Choices are nice, but confusing

• T-1 prices are coming down

• What ever happened to ISDN?

• CLECs are slowly getting their act together (if only their ISP customers would pay them)

© 2000 David Strom Inc. p. 4

Telecom Act 1996 Fallout

• Telephones have become as reliable as PCs

• Now everyone can become a CLEC – all it takes is a modem bank and a dream

• Slight improvement in iLEC attitudes

• Downtown COs are now prime real estate

• Data is still a 4 letter word to most iLECs

© 2000 David Strom Inc. p. 5

My Experiences

• Home: Cablevision Optimum Online since 1/99, two hour install, multiple outages. Overall bandwidth ~10x ISDN

• Work: Bell Atlantic ISDN 1/96-4/99; Covad Telespeed since 4/99. (2 ISPs!)

• Become neighborhood tech support source

Disclaimer: Covad investor and advisor

© 2000 David Strom Inc. p. 6

Why Two DSL ISPs?

• Prices are competitive

• Spotty service from first ISP

• It’s the latency, stupid!

© 2000 David Strom Inc. p. 7

Cable Advantages

• One phone-call install

• Customer knows nothing about routers

• Wiring is already in the home – sort of

© 2000 David Strom Inc. p. 8

Cable Disadvantages

• Reliability and reputation low: single supplier per area

• No relationships with business users

• Need firewall and/or security improvements

• As popularity grows, bandwidth drops (2-20 x ISDN connection)

• Some MSOs don’t support LANs

© 2000 David Strom Inc. p. 9

xDSL Advantages

• Not sharing your connection

• Competition in many urban areas

• Cost competitive with T-1 service

© 2000 David Strom Inc. p. 10

xDSL Disadvantages

• Multiple truck rolls

• Customer is caught among ISP, iLEC and CLEC

• Limited number of routers supported

• Confusing choices of speeds and technologies

• Distance limits for some suburban users

© 2000 David Strom Inc. p. 11

The Future …

• Broadband still has plenty of room to improve• CLECs have many hurdles • Cable operators have to overcome their crummy

service reputation • Integrated voice/data not the prime driver; it’s

reliable service• We are still years away from enhanced services

such as voic and video

© 2000 David Strom Inc. p. 12

Our Panel

• Dorothy Atwood, FCC• Shirley Bloomfield, NTCA• David Bolger, USTA• Terry Monroe, CompTel• David Rendall, Gartner• Mark Uncapher, ITAA• John Windhausen, ALTS